Last week we heard that AT&T was preparing to launch a new prepaid brand, and this week Aio Wireless is now live. The no-contract wireless service is now active in Houston, Tampa, and Orlando, but it should see a nationwide rollout on June 15th. GoPhone is AT&T’s current prepaid brand, but the prices and data caps are not competitive with other no-contract offerings, and it’s refreshing to see them try something new.

The basic plan from Aio Wireless starts at $40 per month and offers unlimited talk, text, and web. Users get 250 MB of “high speed data” and then they are throttled to 2G speeds when they exceed that. For $55 per month the high speed data cap is raised to 2GB, and for $70 per month the limit is increased to 7GB. Additional data can be added to any plan at a rate of $10 per GB.

We had to dig through the fine print, but it appears that “high speed data” is limited to a maximum of 4 Mbps. That is slower than AT&T’s HSPA+ network which has a theoretical max of 21 Mbps, and their LTE network which can go much faster.

Compared to other no-contract plans, T-Mobile offers more bang for the buck, but it’s still nice to see AT&T expanding their options for prepaid wireless. These Aio Wireless plans are a big improvement over GoPhone, that offered 1GB of data for $65 per month, and there is always the chance that AT&T could boost the download speeds at a later date.

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If the ‘high speed’ wasn’t so NOT high speed this plan would be great for anyone living in areas where T Mobile has limited coverage. AT&T has great coverage in my area, but I wouldn’t switch unless it was for the full HSDPA 21 coverage. I’d rather save a few bucks and use WiFi at home where I have 2g coverage, and the T Mobile 3g in the more densely populated areas I tend to frequent, rather than pay more for coverage that’s barely better than 2g. Its a nice start though, and hopefully they decide to offer a better service in the future.

This seems like a weak low ball “see we’re paying attention to what our customers want” kind of deal. AT&T is too expensive. 4MBps is the reason why I’m leaving Sprint for T-Mobile as soon as the new Nexus 4 is released. I need 32GB of storage.

If this a HSPA+/Non-LTE plan for this price it would be OK. American businesses are so money-hungry that they price out certain customers.

These plans don’t seem remotely competitive price wise with most prepaid carriers. Unless you’re stuck in a part of the country where it is AT&T or bust, I don’t see them being a good option.

If you’re covered well by T-mobile, they’re (or one of their MVNOs) are really tough to beat. I use Solavei’s $49 for unlimited talk/text + 4GB plan and it works great for me (PS, if you want a free sim card for them you can get them @ http://www.simgive.com). Straight Talk serves people well for just $45 a month (provided you avoid their moving data throttling cap… usually around 2GB a month but it varies at random). Tmobile’s uncarrier plans are evne better than these, especially when you factor in LTE, HSPA+42, the ability to roam, etc. Bottom line, for every plan offered via Aio, there is another provider offering something similar for much less. Hopefully they adjust their pricing after this trial run, because it is too high.

Also, this trend of unlimited plans doesn’t actually impact most users. A lot of people I know are light to medium users and unlimited plans end up causing them to spend much more than they really need to. For them, companies like Ting (if Sprint has solid coverage by you) can always save them boatloads more than anyone else.

All you people complaining. Lets see 4mbps is faster than Verizon 3G which will max out at about 3mbps. You’d be paying less than you would on any carrier other than t-mobile. T-Mobile has 2g edge outside of cities. At&ts hspa coverage alone is larger than T-Mobiles entire network. Every time you roam with t-mobile your data is throttled and limited. So tell me how this isn’t a good deal? Better coverage more access to better speeds sounds good to me.

you’re right. VZW 3G is theoretical max at 3mbps, but in reality the most you ever get is about 500-600 kbps on their 3G. Heck even on their overloaded LTE the most I ever get anymore is 2.5mbps. When I first got on VZW LTE I was getting 28mbps up/14mbps down. Now its like 2.5 mbps down/1mbps up. Completely overloaded and not enough backhaul.

First of all at&t HSPA service is not bigger than T-Mobile. at&t only goes up to 21.1 Mbps. T-Mobile goes up to HSPA++ or 42.2 Mbps. + LTE coverage on all their pre-paid monthly 4G services. Also, T-Mobile has part of the 1900 Mhz of at&t failed attempt to buy them out. That means that T-Mobile has not only 1700 AWS which is way faster than at&t it has 1900 Mhz re-farmed.

Compare the Aio coverage map to GoPhone’s. Look at MI and WI, for example. Big coverage chunks are missing. Yes, I can see the 2G areas that remain just some areas.
Also, would you prefer 910 kbps vs 4 mbs? That is what GoSmartMobile “3G” high speed is throttled to provide.